Try GOLD - Free
Is Labour support for a twostate solution just a cliche?
The Independent
|February 06, 2025
Unusually for someone at the top of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer doesn’t have a history of insulting Donald Trump.
He has never – leastways, never in public – called the 45th and 47th president a racist, nor a KKK man, nor a danger to the world. In recent times he’s also carefully avoided any criticism of the president’s policies, no matter how weird they might be.
This seems to have earned some credit with Donald Trump. However, at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday Sir Keir couldn’t quite bring himself to endorse the president’s proposal to deport 1.8 million Palestinians and turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. Instead, the prime minister stuck to his policy line about a two-state solution. Some wonder if that’s nowadays no more than a useful cliche.
What did Starmer say?
Without naming Trump, his meaning was clear. Referring to the traumatised people of Gaza he declared: “They must be allowed home. They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”
But what is meant by a ‘two-state solution’?
There are many versions – and they’ve been adjusted over time, usually at the expense of the territory nominally controlled by what is presently the Palestinian Authority, a weak entity.
This story is from the February 06, 2025 edition of The Independent.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Independent
The Independent
US fights to open Strait of Hormuz as Iran retaliates
America claims to have sunk several small Iranian vessels as Tehran launches fresh airstrikes on neighbours and US Navy
4 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
‘My arrest shows repression has now reached its peak’
Azerbaijan’s jailed opposition leader tells James C Reynolds that his country’s future is with Europe, not Russia – but the West must step up and challenge its record on human rights
4 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
‘You’ve become a carer, a doctor and a nurse at home’
Two fathers who had to care for their terminally ill children are calling for more government support for other families
3 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
One-minute NHS jab gives cancer patients ‘time back’
Tens of thousands of patients could benefit from a one-minute jab being rolled out on the NHS for more than a dozen cancers.
3 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
A golden age of Jewish life is over... we are all poorer for it
Future historians will certainly look back at Jewish life in the late 20th century in English-speaking countries as a golden age of the diaspora – even surpassing the brilliance of medieval Spain or Enlightenment Germany.
4 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
The nightmare of trying to save our son Jack from Isis
For a dozen years, Sally Lane and John Letts have been fighting to bring their son – held in Isis prisons in Syria and Iraq – back home to Oxford. They tell the story to Bel Trew
8 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
Labour is working to defeat the scourge of mental illness
No one can deny we have a come a long way in this country towards banishing the myths, misunderstandings, and stigma surrounding mental illness.
3 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
More than 20 Britons stuck on cruise ship hit by virus
More than 20 Britons are stuck on a luxury cruise ship in South Africa which is not allowed to dock due to a suspected hantavirus outbreak onboard.
2 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
Blair issues green energy warning amid Iran conflict
Decarbonisation can’t be ‘pursued in isolation’, says ex-PM
3 mins
May 05, 2026
The Independent
Reform threaten to build migrant detention centres in Green-voting areas
Reform UK’s pledge to build new detention centres for people awaiting deportation in areas that vote for the Green Party has been branded “grotesque” by rival parties.
2 mins
May 05, 2026
Listen
Translate
Change font size